Computer rooms, or data centers, are known to be built with raised floors. The under floor volume is pressurized with a cooling fluid, often chilled air. Where cooling is needed, the cooling fluid blows upwards through vented floor tiles, which are often mechanically constructed devices, which contain fixed venting (covering a known percentage of their surface area) or are designed with adjustable louvers or sliding apertures to allow more or less of the cooling fluid to flow through the tile. The cooling fluid flows through the vented floor tiles and is circulated throughout the computer systems in the computer rooms, causing a cooling effect.
The need for the cooling fluid varies in the short term as load gets passed around the room and in the long term as more computer systems are added to the room or racks are vacated. As such, some types of vented floor tiles are known to incorporate servo mechanisms to adjust louvers contained therein, under computer control, to the desired angle in order to vary the volume flow rate of the cooling fluid. These types of vented floor tiles are often difficult to install because they typically require wiring for power and data communications. Thus, for instance, in a relatively large computer room having a large number of automated floor tiles, the time and labor required to install the automated floor tiles often becomes exorbitantly high.
A number of approaches have been devised to eliminate the need for the wiring to the automated floor tiles. For instance, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2006/0286918 to Vargas, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety, describes a self-powered automated air vent that includes an airflow-driven generator mounted on or near the vent tile. More particularly, Vargas discloses that the airflow-driven generator is mounted directly to the vent frame with the air vanes mounted directly behind the louvers. Thus, in Vargas, when the air vanes are closed, no air flows through the airflow-driven generator and thus, no electrical current is generated. As such, the automated air vent of Vargas requires that an energy storage be included in the air vent assembly to provide sufficient power to move the air vanes from a completely closed positioned to an open position. The requirement of the energy storage increases the size and cost of, the Vargas air vent.